Always hiring. Everyone’s a hire.

How to build an always on hiring pipe

First off there’s a mentality swap - moving from hiring when you need (which is almost always in a fire situation when someone's left) to hiring when you don’t need (aka ‘always hiring’). The point here is that you never know when you might need someone, and you never know who the right hire might be - so give yourself a chance and always be in a hiring mentality.

Next up it’s about building an always on hiring pipe - the infrastructure which allows you to hire efficiently and effectively.

An example structure is as follows:

• Proposition & positioning: get your company's job page in shape.  Create a clear company proposition + sort out specific  job ads for core company roles.  You've got to sell yourselves as much as the candidates.

• Channels: optimise your channels: search (SEO), Linked-in, key 3rd party job boards /  Glass Door.

  • Search: SEO your job ads and create relevant / connected content

  • Linked-in: get your profile in shape & post regularly.  Pay for the Premium Linked-in recruiter service & use to connect / invite to chat at a granular level.

  • Indeed / Glassdoor: ensure your profiles & job ads are updated on core online recruiter platforms like Indeed and Glassdoor.  Encourage positive feedback from past employees .

• Data collection & conversion optimisation:  the core goal for always on hiring is data collection (i.e. if someone's looking for a job, you want to get their data so you keep in contact). 

• Funnel management: funnel all data into a single candidate database, and regularly review.  Use Zapier / Google / Slack alerts to efficiently manage / triage / keep in touch.

• Face time targets: set yourself weekly interview targets.  Be efficient.  Create short 15 min slots so 'first chats' to initially connect.  Lunch and post-work, generally work best.  Start at say 2 interviews / chats a week, and build to 4.

• Automation: automate as much as the process as possible.  Using Zapier to connect all the various tools you need is a good automation short-cut.

• Keep in Touch: ongoing relationship building is important.  You're never going to be ready to hire when the perfect candidate is ready, so keep connected via regular mailings / Linked-in postings / Social to ensure the stars will align ;-)

At the end of this, a key question for your senior management should be: how many new people have you spoken to this week?

Same people. Different leader. Different Results.

In March this year, the England Test Cricket team lost their series against in the West Indies.  This followed a 5-0 series Ashes loss in Australia, and marked a run of losses for England Test captain Joe Root.

After the Windies loss, Joe Root resigned, and Ben Stokes was installed as Captain, and New Zealander Brendan McCullum as Head Coach.

Fast forward 2 months, Ben Stoke's England have just completed a 3-0 white wash of New Zealand - the number 1 ranked Test team in the world. Followed by victory over India.

Most interestingly this turnaround was achieved with pretty much the same team.    Joe Root is still a key member of the team - scoring critical match-winning runs for the team - and supporting Captain Stokes.  The main difference is a change in mentality and culture, driven by the change in leadership.

The mousey mild Root, replaced by the front-footed Stokes.

Stoke's insight into what's changed in the England cricket camp was nicely articulated in his Test Match Special interview:

"There is clarity within the team and changing room. It is the language that we speak in and the mentality that we get across. It is amazing the language that you use in a changing room and results have looked after themselves in a way. It's just how we play the game, that has been the most important thing, and five weeks ago that was the main thing. Yeah, it's awesome."

Lesson learnt: don't underestimate the radical impact of a change in leadership when there's a good product in place to exploit.

IMAGE CREDIT: BBC online

Creating 'good' companies

We sat down the other day to discuss what the overall goals for one of our portfolio companies.  As we fundamentally believe in holding on to good assets and extracting value out of them over the long-term, articulating what a ‘good company’ actually looks like is important for shareholders, management and staff.

Here are the x5 values we settled on:

• Sustainability: a company based around a solid business model.

• Longevity: create a company for the long-haul, with good defensibility built into it.

• Low stress: create a well-functionality company and an environment that is low stress for employees.  We’re not talking slides and free beer for all - but more grown up stuff like making sure the company operates properly, is correctly staffed and well-managed.

• Profitable & rewarding: build a company that is profitable, and rewards employees & shareholders well financially.

• Do good sh*t: create a company that ‘does good’ for the world, and does it bit to improve it.

These aren’t earth-shattering statements, however they all add up to what I’d call a ‘good company’, and certainly one I’m happy (in more than one sense) to back.

Randomly these partly link to a painting by a Bristol-based graffiti artist I bought a few years ago which always makes me smirk when I look at it . . .

Entrepreneur stack v.1 - notes on what my *personal entrepreneur stack* looks like

Since leaving University and starting my first venture (a Drum & Bass music video company) I’ve always worked closely and been supported by a team of technically, operationally and creatively awesome people, who have always very much complimented my skill sets.  First off it was Andy and Matt (when we were setting up Team Rubber), then Ally at VAN, and subsequently at Sharethrough where I was supported by a whole beast of an operational engine at our San Francisco HQ.

After exiting Sharethrough last summer I found myself for the first time flying solo, which is both hugely liberating but also has meant that for the first time in 15+ years I’m having to do my own laundry - so to speak (i.e. I’m now having to run my own entrepreneurial operations).

This is isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and what I’ve discovered is that being an entrepreneur in 2017 is a lot easier than it was in 2000.  I say that because there are now a tonne of free / low cost apps available which make an entrepreneurs life so much easier.

Over the few months I’ve reflected on my life at the coal-face of being an entrepreneur again for the last 12 months, and sketched out (as below) how I manage my work, and keep on top of my various ventures - from Digital Democracy at Delib to helping protect people’s homes and businesses at SmartSecurity.Store.

>> Notes / thinking / idea building

The first stage of any new venture is the ideas stage.  Ideas generally take a while to evolve, and a mix of internalisation and externalisation / collaboration.

• Evernote: this is the engine for all my note taking.  I’m *quite* organised and diligently use the tag system, but find the search pretty solid, and like the web and image clipping tools.  Evernote
• Pocket: Pocket’s a great way to track / store interesting articles, especially for train / tube consumption whilst on the go.  Pocket
• Feedly: Feedly’s my feed aggregator of choice, and a nice way to browse through a selection of blogs.  I will often then share the best articles via Buffer.  Feedly
• ToDoist: I list my everything I need to get done in my ToDoist list, and break them out into daily tasks every morning.  Todoist

>> Sharing / collaboration

As ideas develop, the fluid sharing ideas / knowledge / links is important.  This is something I do across numerous platforms . . .

• Buffer: Buffer’s how I manage my various social media profiles and idea / content sharing.  I usually share on desktop, and monitor the analytics via the mobile app. Buffer
• Twitter: Twitter’s my go to social channel for following interesting (work-related) people, and then sharing out ideas. Twitter
• Linked-in: I use Linked-in mainly for sharing content / ideas, but also for directly connecting to my network Linkedin
• Tweetfull: Tweetfull has been useful for managing the growth of my various Twitter channels.  It’s not too spammy in the way it help connect to like-minded people, and has been pretty effective at growing my social network.  Tweetfull
• MailChimp: MailChimp’s my go-to for newsletter management  MailChimp
• Slack: Slack’s great for communicating / collaborating within a team  Slack
• Google Drive & docs: I found Google docs, and Google Drive a simple way to collaborate on documents / sharing files  Google Drive

>> Idea building / making / managing / collaboration

Once I'm in the *making stage* of a project, I then need tools to help me build / test minimal viable products quickly.

• Hover: product naming / branding is still reliant on access to a good URL.  Hover’s a simple way to manage domain research and buying.  Hover
• Squarespace: once you’ve got an idea together, bought the URL, then comes *idea articulation* / the launch of a MVP (minimal viable product).  I mostly do this by whipping together a website using SquareSpace.  SquareSpace
• Shopify: for e-commerce ideas, Shopify is an amazingly powerful / easy-to-use platform for running online shops  Shopify
• Trello: as the idea matures, and more people are brought into handle different tasks, I then use Trello to manage tasks across teams.  Trello
• Liquid Lizard: when it comes to design, my go to partner is *Liquid Lizard* (aka Dave).  With a tight brief, Liquid Lizard is great at turning around awesome-looking graphics, to make any idea super shiny.  LiquidLizard
• UpWork: Upwork’s a v.efficient way of outsourcing repetitive tasks (like researching something / gathering data) and also more specialist tasks like SEO.  Simply add your brief, targets and budget - and a few days later, someone the other side of the world will deliver for you.  Upwork

>> Other

Beyond the above, I also use a range of other tools in my everyday work . . .

• Privy: I use Privy on top of SquareSpace (and connected to MailChimp) to collect email addresses from interested parties  Privy
• AirBnB: I’ve been using AirBnB since its launch, and it still delivers great value accommodation, and is an especially nice way of discovering interesting parts of new cities when travelling alone.  Airbnb
• Google Calendar: keeps me organised and knowing what I’m supposed to be doing / when  Google Calendar

>> Missing / areas for improvement

The two areas I haven’t 100% sorted as yet are my *expenses and accounts* and *CRM* system - which are areas I'm working on, but still haven't mastered in a super organised way ;-)

I'd love to hear from you as to what other tools you use / tools that I've maybe missed / tools I really *should be using* (leave ideas below in the comments section) ;-)